Lewis: How much longer will we let oil and gas interests make decisions for us?

In a May 5 Tribune article, Extraction Oil and Gas officials stated 80 percent of drilling at the site near Bella Romero Academy will occur during non-school hours.

Reducing drilling may sound significant to some, but those of us who live near West Greeley’s Triple Creek site found flow back to be loudest phase, followed by the frack and only then by drilling. We were told the frack would have been the loudest, but Extraction used Liberty’s “Quiet Fleet” technology at Triple Creek.

But if the odors from the site are of concern — and they should be — our drilling experience at Triple Creek was discouraging. On March 22, 2017, one of our neighboring families was driven back into their home from a strong diesel smell that made their sinuses burn. Their home is just under 2,000 feet from the closest well. Bella’s building is about 1,350-feet from its closest well.

In addition, it took more than six months from the time the drilling rig was first setup at Triple Creek until it was disassembled. This is about twice the length of summer break at Bella.

With construction completed late 2017, Triple Creek is likely Extraction’s most similar existing project. It has 22 wells (Bella has 24), Extraction “shoe-horned” both sites into residential areas, both have large electric rather than diesel-powered drilling rigs, both will employ pipelines to carry the minerals away from the site and Extraction considers both sites to be “state of the art.”

Bella is also the most graphic example of the difference between the Letter of the Law and the Intent of the Law. At 1,350-feet, Extraction’s site design meets the 1,000-foot minimum site distance to the school building. When inside, the grade 4-8 students are seated for class, breathing conditioned and filtered air. But when those same children’s developing lungs are being exercised during play at the outside playgrounds, they are as close as 800-feet to the wells, about 200-feet shy of this requirement.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the agency charged with regulating oil and gas development, abides by its own regulations by enforcing them when a physical structure provides protection. But when children play in a playground, the COGCC looks the other way and our children pay the price for this deplorable negligence.

How much longer will we — and our courts — allow the COGCC and the oil and gas industry to defy common sense to the detriment of our residents and the environment? In May, 2017, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled the COGCC does have a responsibility to protect human welfare and the natural environment — even if that responsibility hampers oil and gas extraction (Martinez v. COGCC).

In other words, the COGCC would be prohibited from issuing new drilling permits unless it can be scientifically demonstrated such drilling will not harm human health or Colorado’s ecological resources.

The COGCC appealed the Appeals Court’s ruling and the Colorado Supreme Court announced it will hear the appeal. So just maybe, the COGCC will finally be forced to equally prioritize public health and the environment and actually abide by the charge they tout on their home page.

— Lowell Lewis is a retired civil engineer and with his wife, Margie, has been actively involved with Neighbors Affected by Triple Creek, a west Greeley organization that worked in opposition to the Triple Creek oil and gas project.